|
Today's
Stories
January 5 /
6, 2008
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
January 2,
2008
Jeff Taylor
The
Left and Ron Paul
M. Shahid Alam
The Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto: a Pakistani Tragedy
Gary Leupp
Madness Compounding Madness: Calls for Intervention in Pakistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Criminals with Badges
Heather Gray
Georgia's Racist Death Penalty
Fred Gardner
and Shobhit Arora
Dr. Strangelove's Nemesis
David Macaray
Labor Unions and Taft-Hartley
Benjamin Dangl
Fear and Loathing in Bolivia
January 1,
2008
Iain A. Boal
City
of Disappearances
B. R. Gowani
Benazir's Death in Crisistan
Shahid Mahmood
Bhutto and the Press
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Old Injustices Endure: From Crack Sentences to Racial Profiling
Harvey Wasserman
Taking Leonard Peltier to Iowa: the Moral Low Point of the Clinton
Era
John Ross
2008, Already a Year to Forget
Website of the Day
The Thrill is Gone: BB and Gladys
December 31,
2007
Alexander Cockburn
Goodbye
2007 and Good Riddance!
Tariq Ali
Pakistan, the Aftermath
Liaquat Ali Khan
The Perfidy of Pakistan's Rulers
Wajahat Ali
After Bhutto, a Nuclear Pakistan?
Robert Fisk
Who Killed Bhutto?
Ajai Sahni
Myths and Realities About Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan's Dark
Future
Marwan Bishara
You Say Talk, I Say Attack: The Middle East and the US Presidential
Election Campaigns
Uri Avnery
The Beilin Syndrome
Mark T. Harris
Does This Happen in Canada?
Brenda Norrell
Resistance and Censorship
Website of the Day
A People United Will Never Be Defeated
December 29
/ 30, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Options
in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby
Tariq Ali
Indignation and Fear Stalk Pakistan
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
My Encounter with Benazir Bhutto
Gary Leupp
The U.S. and Pakistan After 9/11: Blowback from an Unholy Alliance
China Hand
Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss
Jacob Hornberger
Stop Medddling in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Pakistan and the Failure of Quick-Fix Politics
Missy Beattie
Evaluating Bush with the Bhutto Corruption Standard
Ralph Nader
Who Will Take the Next Step?
Fidel Castro
There Hasn't Been a Day in My Life When I Haven't Learned Something
Robert Fantina
The Sham of Homeland Security
Greg Moses
Beauty from the Heart of Texas
Catherine Lutz
What We Can Not See: Art and Bombing
Kristin Van
Tassel
Seeing in the Dark
Kim Nicolini
Redacted: Brian DePalma's Scream of Outrage
Phyllis Pollack
Keith Richards Runs With Rudolph Once More
Poets' Basement
Landau, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Driving Karachi in Search of the Perfect Naan
December 28,
2007
Farzana Versey
The
Complex Electra
Wajahat Ali
A
Pakistani Requiem
Binoy Kampmark
Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives
Anthony DiMaggio
Turkey's Bombing of Iraq
Ray McGovern
Creeping
Fascism
Jim Goodman
Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going
Ron Jacobs
Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted
Russell Hoffman
Mini-Nukes by Toshiba
John Murphy
Greens Gone Wild
Website of the Day
Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"
December 27,
2007
Dilip Hiro
A
Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party?
Murtaza Shibli
Who Killed Bhutto?
Stephen Soldz
Fallujah,
the Information War and U.S. Propaganda
Bill Quigley
Locked
Outside the Gates
Paul Craig Roberts
The Great American Lock-Up
Omer Subhani
Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan?
Marjorie Cohn
The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?
Allan Nairn
Cataclysm By Money Whim
Jacob G. Hornberger
Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT
Norman Solomon
Channeling Suze Orman
Patrick Irelan
Rumsfeld Spills the Ink
Ben Tripp
Pass the Razor Blades
Website of the Day
Quagmire, For What It's Worth
December 26, 2007
Charles Tripp
From
One Saddam to Fifty
Paul Armentano
No-Knock, You're Dead
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon in Search of a Government
Stanley Heller
Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War
John Walsh
Two Unreasonable Men
Martha Rosenberg
The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb
Norman Madarasz
Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within
Website of
the Day
Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas
December 25,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Conscience
and Empire
December 24,
2007
Andrea Peacock
A
Dark Ride on the Border
Tariq Ali
Thinking of Edward Said
Uri Avnery
Help! A Ceasefire!
Jill Jameson
Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot
Steve Melendez
Russell Means Goes to Washington
Mike Whitney
The Big Fix
Chuck Munson
Not Getting It About New Orleans
John Walsh
Clueless Crusaders
Farzana Versey
Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion
Richard Neville
Dreaming of a White House Christmas
Website of the Day
Back in the USSR
December 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Mike
Huckabee's Ascending Chariot
Ralph Nader
Politics
and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way
Andy Worthington
Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons
in Afghanistan
Ahmad Faruqui
The Comedian of Pakistan
Bill Moyers
Society on Steroids
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Timothy J. Freeman
From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over?
Anthony DiMaggio
Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol
Paul Krassner
Enhanced Hazing Techniques
Seth Sandronsky
17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law
William Loren
Katz
Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake
Okeechobee
Michael Dickinson
In the Dungeon of the Zabita
Ron Jacobs
Why Leon Russell Still Matters
David Vest
Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?"
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
George W. Hates Santa
December 21,
2007
John Ross
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Jacob Hornberger
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq
Dick J. Reavis
A
Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss
Jeff Cohen
and Norman Solomon
The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes
Peter Morici
Business as Usual as Recession Looms
Jack McCarthy
Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie
Kerik)
Raúl Zibechi
Sex and Revolution
Steve Early
How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist
David Macaray
Union Aftermath
Patrick Bond
Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa
Lakota Freedom Delegation
A Declaration of Independence from the USA
Website of
the Day
Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape
December 20,
2007
David Rosen
Mitt
Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer
Alan Farago
The
Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage
Crisis
Laura Carlsen
Standing Up to NAFTA
Ashley Dawson
The Return of the Bread Riot
Wayne Smith
and Jennifer Schuett
Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates
Website of
the Day
How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter
December 19,
2007
Saul Landau
Is
the NIE Bush's Watergate?
Paul W. Lovinger
Hillary the Hawk
Norman Solomon
The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck
Dave Zirin
George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice
Marjorie Cohn
Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes
Sen. Russell
Feingold
The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation
Sonja Karkar
A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Anthony Papa
Open the Drug Gulags
Christopher Ketcham
Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions
Davey D
Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop?
Website of
the Day
When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV
December 18,
2007
R. F. Blader
The
Politics of Teen Pregnancy
George Wuerthner
Gunning for Wolves in Idaho
Steven Higgs
Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped?
Vijay Prashad
Encounters with Ghadar
David Macaray
The Free Rider Problem
Ralph Nader
Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays
Eva Liddell
Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home
Martha Rosenberg
While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters
Dave Lindorff
When Impeachment is Out of Print
Peter Morici
The Consequences the Trade Deficit
Website of
the Day
Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America
December 17,
2007
Mike Whitney
Staring
Into the Abyss
Tom Barry
Planning
the War on Immigrants
Uri Avnery
A
Gaza Masada?
Greg Moses
Crossing the Line in Texas
Allan Nairn
Terrorism; Counter-
Terrorism: Excuses for Murder
Patrick Bond
South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers
Stephen Lendman
Police State America
Charles Jonkel
Grizzly Right of Way
Laray Polk
An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza
Stephen Fleischman
Pawns in Their Game
December 15
/ 16, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
People's Penny for the Magna Carta
Howard Zinn
Bomb After Bomb
Standard Schaefer
The Greening of Big Tobacco
Raymond J.
Lawrence
Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas
Alan Farago
Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine
Saul Landau
Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists
Jenna Orkin
Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the
Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up
Ahmad Samih
Khalidi
Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct
Robert Fantina
Politics By Photo-Op
Missy Comley
Beattie
Resistance Amid the Ruins
Ramzy Baroud
Of Mormons and Muslims
James L. Secor
A Vision for China's Future
Elijah Wald
Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten
Website of
the Weekend
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
December 14,
2007
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him
John Ross
Iraqi
Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax
Jacob Hornberger
Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened?
Allan Nairn
"Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes
Dave Zirin
The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners
Dave Lindorff
The First Cut is the Deepest
Misty MacDuffee
Toxic Grizzlies
Ben Terrall
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
Prerequisites for Peace
Website of the Day
Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"
December 13,
2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Shrinking
the Dollar from the Inside-Out
Mike Whitney
Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding
Ron Jacobs
Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy
Norman Solomon
The USA's Human Rights Daze
Peter Morici
The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch
Sandy Mayes
Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia
Franklin Lamb
The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling?
Jacob Hornberger
Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It
Nadim Rouhana
An Interloper in My Own Land
Dave Zirin
On Pigskin and Petrol
Website of the Day
Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support!
December 12, 2007
Allan
Nairn
US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian
Phones
Alan
Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
Ray
McGovern
Torture, Lies and Videotape
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts
Evan
Jones
The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell
Doom for the US Farm Belt
James
Petras
An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers
Joel
Hirschorn
The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine
Joshua
Frank
Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention
Sherry
Wolf
Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul
Dan
Bacher
Survey of a Fish Graveyard
Website
of the Day
Men Eating Bugs
|
Weekend
Edition
January 5 / 6, 2008
Clinton and Edwards
Couldn't Hide From Their Votes for the Iraq War
Iowa,
Democrats and the Iraq War
By ROBERT FANTINA
Iowa has spoken, and what the Democratic
caucus attendees said seems to have been either ignored or overlooked
by much of the mainstream media.
On the Republican side, there
was not much to say anyway. Evangelical voters propelled former
Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to victory, over the chameleon-like
Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Huckabee's
bizarre statements (such as his call to "take this nation
back for Christ," whatever on earth that means) notwithstanding,
at least his dangerous, far-from-the-mainstream positions on
most of the important issues of the day do not undergo situational
change, as do Mr. Romney's. So it cannot be surprising that the
misnamed Christian Right rejected Mr. Romney as too recent and
unconvincing a convert to its far-right positions, as well as
breathing a sigh of relief that they did not have to vote for
a Mormon.
But on the Democratic side
there is news. The supposedly invincible Senator Hillary Clinton
was relegated to third place, perhaps casting a significant roadblock
onto her trek to the White House. Former Senator and 2004 vice-presidential
candidate John Edwards came in a dismal and distant second to
the victor, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
In 2004, Massachusetts Senator
John Kerry surprisingly won the Iowa caucuses and then went on
to win the Democratic presidential nomination, only to lose the
general election. It was said after that first contest in Iowa
in 2004 that the party wanted a candidate who could win; former
governor Howard Dean, the media-darling frontrunner, was not
so perceived by the voters. Yet Mr. Kerry failed to overcome
the reservations of many Democrats who could not overlook his
vote to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq. Sen. Edwards
and Sen. Clinton also voted for war at that time.
A brief review of events during
that period may be necessary. Mr. Bush was busy rattling his
saber at his 'axis of evil,' with oil-rich Iraq being the main
target. He, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State
Colin Powell all used the fear card as they worked to tell an
unconvinced population that Iraq had weapons of  mass destruction
and would soon use them against the U.S. With the wounds of the
September 11, 2001 attacks still festering, they strongly implied
a connection between the events of that day and Iraq, and hoped
to convince the world that Iraq must be neutralized through a
'pre-emptive' strike.
In response, Iraq opened its
doors to United Nations' weapons inspectors, and granted them
unprecedented access to all requested areas. As the inspectors
searched the country in vain, Messrs Bush, Cheney and Powell
continued their fear-based rhetoric, much of which was dismissed
by the U.S. public, but swallowed whole by Congress. And there,
voting for war, were Senators Edwards and Clinton. Mr. Edwards
was eloquent in his support of the war resolution: "Others
argue that if even our allies support us, we should not support
this resolution because confronting Iraq now would undermine
the long-term fight against terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Yet,
I believe that this is not an either-or choice. Our national
security requires us to do both, and we can." This statement
was made during a speech on October 10, 2002, one day before
the vote.
Two years later, Mr. Edwards
was unapologetic. Appearing on 'Meet the Press' on October 10,
2004, Mr. Tim Russert asked him the following question: "If
you knew todayand you do know there are no weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq...would you still vote to go to war with Iraq?"
Mr. Edwards responded thusly: "I would have voted for the
resolution knowing what I know today, because it was the right
thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam
Hussein." Mr. Edwards is indeed a late convert to the cause
of peace and diplomacy, rather than war and imperialism.
Ms. Clinton was more guarded
in her 2002 vote. Said she at that time: "Even though the
resolution before the Senate is not as strong as I would like
in requiring the diplomatic route first and placing highest priority
on a simple, clear requirement for unlimited inspections, I take
the President at his word that he will try hard to pass a United
Nations resolution and seek to avoid war, if possible.
"Because bipartisan support
for this resolution makes success in the United Nations more
likely and war less likely, and because a good faith effort by
the United States, even if it fails, will bring more allies and
legitimacy to our cause, I have concluded, after careful and
serious consideration, that a vote for the resolution best serves
the security of our Nation. If we were to defeat this resolution
or pass it with only a few Democrats, I am concerned that those
who want to pretend this problem will go way with delay will
oppose any United Nations resolution calling for unrestricted
inspections."
It is regrettable that Ms.
Clinton was deceived in her belief in Mr. Bush's word that he
would seek to avoid war. It is unfortunate that her vote did
not 'bring more allies and legitimacy' to the cause. It is also
unfortunate that the requirement for unlimited inspections that
she wanted to see was not included. Had it been, perhaps today
nearly 4,000 dead U.S. soldiers would still be alive, thousands
more would not be languishing neglected and underserved in veterans'
hospitals, and still others would not have life-altering injuries.
Perhaps too over 1,000,000 dead Iraqis would still be alive,
enjoying the love of now-grieving families and friends. Perhaps
over 3,000,000 Iraqis who have fled their homes in terror would
still be able to live in the relative security that their nation
offered, rather then fleeing to an unknown future. Perhaps the
Middle East would not have been destabilized, risking expanded
war throughout much of the world. Perhaps monies that have been
poured down the Iraqi war drain could have been used to provide
health care for America's 45,000,000 uninsured citizens, a cause
which we are led to believe is near and dear to Ms. Clinton's
heart.
So perhaps Iowa's Democrats
could not be fooled again. If a candidate voted for the war authorization
in 2002, he or she could not be trusted to end the war. He or
she could not be electable, because the general population could
not muster sufficient enthusiasm to accomplish it. In 2004 a
vote for Mr. Kerry, for many voters, was simply a vote against
Mr. Bush. Enthusiasm is generally greater when working for a
goal, than when working against one.
Enter Mr. Obama. He has the
advantage of not needing to apologize for his vote on Iraq, as
Mr. Edwards eventually did. Neither must he explain it to death,
so as to appear to have done the right thing, while not doing
the right thing, as Ms. Clinton has done. Mr. Obama was not in
the U.S. Senate at that time, but was a state senator. His remarks
of October 2, 2002 are worth reviewing:
"What I am opposed to
is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by
Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend
warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological
agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives
lost and in hardships borne.
"What I am opposed to
is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract
us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate,
a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals
and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month
since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb
war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not
on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear - I suffer
no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless
man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power.
He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection
teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted
nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people,
would be better off without him.
"But I also know that
Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States,
or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that
the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that
in concert with the international community he can be contained
until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into
the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against
Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at
undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that
an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong
international support will only fan the flames of the Middle
East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of
the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda.
I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."
The Democratic Party of Iowa
was faced with a three-way choice (one hates to discount the
other candidates, such as Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, but
political realities being what they are, the choice was really
between Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Clinton. In U.S. politics,
money talks). In November of 2006 it was made clear to even the
dullest student of politics that the Iraq war was the most important
issue to the voters. The Congress elected then has betrayed the
people, who now look desperately for a president to accomplish
what Congress can but refuses to do. There is a healthy degree
of skepticism about the possible course a President Edwards or
President Clinton would take, based on their past actions. The
caucus participants apparently felt far more comfortable with
the idea of a President Obama.
The dreary, endless primary
season has begun. Who the eventual candidates will be is still
very much in question. But Ms. Clinton and Mr. Edwards, if they
wish to remain viable candidates, must somehow come to terms
with the fact that the nation does not have quite the short attention
span they may have believed or hoped. They voted for the war,
and all the explanations and apologies in the world will not
change that. Whether or not his early and consistent opposition
to the war will propel Mr. Obama to the White House remains to
be seen.
Conversely, Mr. Edwards' and
Ms. Clinton's early endorsement of the war may be sufficient
to deny them the prize they both covet.
Robert Fantina is author of 'Desertion
and the American Soldier: 1776--2006.'
|
Now Available!
How the Press Led
the US into War
Buy End Times Now!
New From
CounterPunch Books
The Secret
Language
of the Crossroads:
HOW THE IRISH
INVENTED SLANG
By Daniel Cassidy
WINNER
OF THE
AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!
Click Here to Buy!
Cassidy
on Tour
Click Here for Dates & Venues
"The Case Against
Israel"
Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
Click Here to Buy!
Saul Landau's
Bush and Botox World
with a Foreword by Gore Vidal
Click Here to Order!
Grand Theft Pentagon
How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism
The Occupation
by Patrick Cockburn
Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont
CITY BEAUTIFUL
By Tennessee Reed
|
